I blogged about the outside of Groningen Museum here. On this May’s visit we actually took a look inside.

The first thing that strikes anybody on entering is this elaborate mosaic-tiled staircase:-

Similar tiling adorned another staircase:-

I was taken with this model of Groningen city centre made from fabric. It was under glass so it’s a little distorted:-

Thee was some not very aesthetically appealing German modern art as the main exhibit when we were there. I’m not averse to modern art but I must confess I preferred these traditional Dutch landscapes:-

In a history of Groningen section was this textile of a sailor and flags of different nations which was of Great War vintage though of course the Dutch were not involved in that conflict:-

Hooge Crater Museum is on the Menin Road just at Bellewaarde, less than a stone’s throw from our hotel. The museum was described in a pamphlet we picked up in In Flanders Fields Museum as the best privately owned museum in Flanders. It’s housed in a former chapel and is utterly jam-packed with exhibits relating to the Great War.

In front of the former doors to the chapel lies this German grave marker:-

From the Menin Road the path to the museum entrance is lined by stone, shaped as sandbags as if it were a trench:-

Entrance and door. Again made to simulate a trench:-

Almost the first thing you encounter in the museum proper is this Fokker DR 1. A Fokker triplane in the scarlet colours as flown by Baron Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron:-

I couldn’t help noticing this very deco looking (or possibly Frank Lloyd Wright influenced or maybe it’s just Belgian) building when we passed through Zonnebeeke in Flanders. The tower behind belongs to the Church of our Lady:-

Imagine my surprise when I got round to the front and discovered it houses the Passchendaele Research Centre which seems to be part of the Passchendaele Memorial Museum. Note the “rule of three” in the windows – and even in what looks like a cold frame below them:-

Other angle:-

From rear:-

Unfortunately I couldn’t get an uninterrupted view of the frontage due to the parked van:-

(The next one was too far behind its glass for the camera to focus properly.) Fritz Haber was responsible for developing Chlorine gas as a weapon. Also without his Haber Process to make ammonia from nitrogen and hydrogen (necessary for producing artificial fertiliser) the Germans would have been unable to make nitrate explosives and so would have been forced to an armistice much earlier. The main exhibit was of an actor speaking Haber’s words:-

Tableau of Horse Ambulance:-

The Wipers Times was a satirical magazine produced by soldiers during the Great War:-

With the possible exception of Saint Martin’s Cathedral, the Cloth Hall (Lakenhalle) is the most imposing building in the city of Ypres (Ieper) in Flanders, Belgium. (The cathedral’s spire can be seen to the rear.)